Extended essay for IB DP students

Every IB Diploma candidate must submit an extended essay on a focused topic in one of the subjects of the IB curriculum – normally one of the student’s 6 chosen subjects for the IB Diploma. The essay must be supervised by a qualified teacher at the school.

The aim of the extended essay project is to provide the students with the opportunity to pursue independent research as well as to develop research, communication and critical thinking skills. The students will engage in a systematic research process and experience the excitement of intellectual discovery.

Each student is given a separate Extended Essay Guide at the start of the research process. The finished essay must be submitted by the deadline given, usually in Term 1 of the IB2 year. Essays submitted in Language A or Language B (Groups 1 and 2) must be written in that language. Essays in subjects from Groups 3 - 6 must be written in English.

The extended essay must be written in clear, correct and formal academic style, appropriate to its subject. The upper limit for the essay is 4,000 words (not including bibliography, footnotes, appendices, maps, charts, diagrams etc). In addition to the essay itself, an abstract not exceeding 300 words must be included with the essay submitted.

The extended essay is externally assessed by an examiner appointed by the IBO and it is marked on a scale from 0 to 36. The total score obtained will be used to determine in which of the following bands the extended essay is placed.

The band descriptors are:

A.  work of an excellent standard
B.   work of good standard
C.   work of satisfactory standard
D.  work of mediocre standard
E.    work of elementary standard